Coast, it is coarser, more nutritious, and fuller flavoured than
the Indian. The cereals, however, are supplanted by plantains and
manioc (cassava). The plantains are cooked in various ways, roast
and boiled, mashed and broiled, in paste and in balls; when
unripe they are held medicinal against dysentery. The manioc is
of the white variety (Fatropha Aypim seu utilissima), and, as at
Lagos, the root may be called the country bread: I never saw the
poisonous or black manioc (Fatropha manihot), either in East or
in West Africa, and I heard of it only once in Unyamwezi, Central
Africa. Yet it is mentioned by all old travellers, and the sweet
harmless variety gives very poor "farinha," Anglice "wood meal."

The vegetables are "Mbongwe" (yams), koko or Colocasia esculenta,
Occras (Hibiscus esculentus), squashes (pumpkins), cucumbers,
beans of several sorts, and the sweet potato, an esculent
disliked by Englishmen, but far more nutritious than the
miserable "Irish" tuber. The ground-nut or peanut (Arachis
hypogaea), the "pindar" of the United States, a word derived from
Loango, is eaten roasted, and, as a rule, the people have not
learned to express its oil. Proyart (Pinkerton, xvi. 551) gives,
probably by misprint, "Pinda, which we call Pistachio." "Bird-
peppers," as the small red species is called, grow wild in every
bush; they are wholesome, and the people use them extensively.
Tomatoes flourish almost spontaneously, and there is a bulbless
native onion whose tops make excellent seasoning. Sugar-cane will
thrive in the swamps, coffee on the hill-slopes: I heard of, but
never saw ginger.

The common fruits are limes and oranges, mangoes, papaws, and
pineapples, the gift of the New World, now run wild, and